When you first move into a new home, you need a little time to get things organised and just how you’d like them. However, you shouldn’t let the grass grow under your feet in terms of finding time to get the new neighbours round and having a little housewarming gathering.

If you delay too long, people might think that you’re unfriendly, and start to build up a false impression about you. Sometimes, people hold off holding a housewarming until they have everything perfectly organised and decorated, but this can take months – especially if you’re busy with work and normal life at the same time as moving in.

Instead, why not hold the housewarming while you’re still unpacking? You can make a couple of the downstairs rooms presentable for an evening and close the door on any unfinished rooms so that your guests don’t need to see all the packing boxes and bubble wrap lurking in the rest of the house.

Of course, how much space you need depends on how many people you’re going to invite. But for an informal gathering of your new neighbours, it’s probably a sensible idea to limit the catering to drinks and a few snacks. Dinner parties can wait until you’ve really got settled in and you’ve got one of those lovely new dining room sets that you’ve been looking at online!

Most polite newcomers will just want to pop in for half an hour and say hello, and they’ll know not to stay too long as it’ll be obvious that you’ve still got plenty to do. It’s just nice to be able to put some names to faces relatively quickly when you move into a new street or estate.

And inviting people over early will hopefully mean that you’ll be invited over to see their places relatively quickly too. You can great decorating inspiration from stores like Harveys Furniture on YouTube, but sometimes seeing what the neighbours have done can be even better!